BEDWETTER

Director Jan Hušek / Producer Matěj Paclík / 61'

Men still have a privileged position. Yet the concept of a “crisis of masculinity” is increasingly permeating the media, with a loosening of roles and a growing uncertainty about what it means to be a man today. The director Jan Hušek also asks this question. He was still wetting himself by the age of thirteen, which earned him the unflattering nickname that is the film's title. In his open video diary, he captures the physical and spiritual transformation of his journey from boy to man. He returns to the woods and the roots of his childhood trauma. In doing so, he turns the camera on himself as well as on various teachers or his father. Perhaps the mark of adulthood, after all, is not overwrought masculinity, but the acceptance of his inner “pisspants”.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Breathless Films / Matěj Paclík / matej@breathlessfilms.cz

 

Havel Speaking, Can You Hear Me?

Director Petr Jančárek / Producer Jiří Konečný / 87'

During the last three years of Václav Havel's life, over 200 hours of unique, never published, original material for a feature documentary was filmed. This film aims to show Havel as a dramatic figure with his history and development, as a shy but consistent director of his own destiny, as a man with the life full of paradoxes, absurdities and unexpected twists. And also, as a man whose credo was that our deeds must always be in accordance with our conscience.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
endorfilm / Jiří Konečný / jiri@endorfilm.cz

 

If I Ever Lose My Eyes

Director Lea Petříková / Producer Tomáš Pertold / 62'

If I Ever Lose My Eyes is a multi-layered contemplation on the frontier between the visible and invisible worlds. The director sets out to explore the mysterious space where the illuminated stage ends and where stories open up behind the curtain, behind the “viewed”. She meets a number of remarkable characters, each of whom searches in their own way for something higher, in the physical or abstract sense, something that transcends everyday reality or the scheme of the visible. The film becomes the means of research that questions the act of viewing and emphasizes the significance of the invisible. It also reflects the relationship between the visible and film as a medium aiming to capture the observed surface and transcending the limits of viewing since the very beginnings of filmmaking.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Perfilm / Tomáš Pertold / tomas@perfilm.cz

 

Is There Any Place For Me, Please?

Director Jarmila Štuková / Producer Maja Hamplová / 77'

Acid attacks around the world have been rising rapidly over the last 10 years. But Martina is only the second case of a woman in the Czech Republic who has survived a brutal acid attack as an act of revenge by an ex-boyfriend. The documentary Is There Any Place For Me, Please? charts Martina’s steps from the moment the world as she knew it collapsed from one second to the next. Suddenly, no familiar patterns could be applied to the life she had lived until then, and Martina had to learn to live anew and differently, while being also blind. In very intimate accounts, supplemented by situations describing her admirable struggle, we follow Martina step by step from the deepest falls to the greatest advances and successes.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Barletta / Maja Hamplová / maja@barletta.cz

 

La Reine

Director Nikola Klinger / Producer Miloš Lochman / 61'

Ian (79) lives in na old lavender distillation in the south of France. He is visited by people from the neighbourhood looking for advice or just a kind word, and acts as a community leader and therapist. Ian makes a living making essential oils.
Huib (58) a gay, who despite his negative worldview, has a sincere desire to care for Ian. He has settled in the area after several life failures and now lives in a tent, reminiscing about his youth as a bourgeois son. 
La Reine is an essay on the duality of things, nature from which man distils a fragrant product, medicines that can be drugs, even care can be destructive. The film doesn't just zoom in on the life of one community, but invites reflection on attitudes to life in general.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
moloko film / Miloš Lochman / milos@molokofilm.com

 

My Paradise Is Darker Than Your Hell

Director Kateřina Dudová / Producer Vojtěch Komrý / 76'

Theatre director Jan Kačena poisoned himself in 2019 by inhaling fumes and suffered irreversible brain damage. While his partner makes a film as a declaration of love, he lies unconscious. In the film, the director follows moments in the everyday lives of three people close to him: Czech rapper Tyler Durden, painter Tadeáš Pochman and film director Helena Papírníková. In a naturalistic way, it captures drug addiction, self-destructive tendencies and family problems, which are the subject of intimate, often uncomfortable conversations. The result is a diary-style probe into the fate of the artistic bohemia of late capitalism.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
FAMU / Vojtěch Komrzý / vojta.komrzy@gmail.com

 

O baripen

Director Vera Lacková / Producer Vera Lacková / 52'

Elena Lacková (1921–2003) was a prominent Romani writer, playwright and social worker. Her great-granddaughter, Alžběta Ferencová alias Zea, is a singer, dancer and actress. The film draws parallels between two family-related women who, despite social prejudices, dedicate their lives to artistic creation. Through archival materials and the stories of witnesses, the difficult fate of Elena Lacková is revealed: from growing up in a Roma settlement, through the period of the Roma Holocaust, to her emancipatory work under communism. The poetic narrative reveals how the personal can take on political dimensions in our society.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Media Voice / Jan Bodnár / janbodnar101@gmail.com

 

Olympic Halftime

Director Haruna Honcoop / Producer Vít Janeček / 77'

The film explores and critically reflects the gestalt of the Olympic Games in several cities in Europe and Asia, that have already hosted the event and are preparing for another round. What was the benefit of the Olympics for those cities and countries? What is their impact on urbanism, communities, and countries where they take place? In addition to Europe, we also visit Asia to watch different approach to organising the Olympics as well as their architectural gestalt and impact on the public space. Beijing, Tokyo, Paris – the cities that have the organising experience from the past and are now in “half time” of preparations for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
D1film / Vít Janeček / vit@d1film.com

 

The Prison of History

Director Matěj Hrudička, Jan Gogola ml. / Producer Anna Stránská, Lubomír Konečný / 92'

Buzzy bees pollinate the flowers in the executioner's courtyard. An overgrown window projects shadows of leaves on the cracked walls of the former cell. Nearby lies the last occupant of the building, the decayed corpse of a curious marten. The former prison has stood in Uherské Hradiště for almost 130 years. Since the WWII it has been the site of political trials, torture and executions. The German Gestapo was replaced by the Czechoslovak Communist government and continued to suppress basic human rights until it ceased operations in the 1960s. The empty premises were used for the Secondary School of Arts and Crafts, a school canteen, a recreation hall, a theatre warehouse. Today the prison is forgotten by its surroundings, surrounded by a supermarket, a bus station and an art school.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Memoria / Anna Stránská / stranska.a@gmail.com

 

The World According to My Dad

Director Marta Kovářová / Producer Jan Bodnár, Jan Hubáček / 77'

“I thought it would be easier,” admits director Marta Kovářová halfway through the film. In the form of a vivid diary, she captures her father's fight for climate justice. Jiří Svoboda from the Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy of Sciences came up with an ingeniously simple idea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He proposes a global carbon price. Accompanied by his daughter's camera and songs, the Brno scientist visits local protest meetings and global environmental summits. The infectious determination of both protagonists, however, clashes with the slothfulness of politicians and the inflexibility of power structures. Yet Svoboda never loses his humour and his belief that certain things make sense simply because they are the right thing to do.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Gnomon Production / Jan Bodnár / jan.bodnar@gnomonfilm.com

 

You Will Never See It All

Director Štěpán Pech / Producer Marek Dusil / 80'

Conceptual visual artist Ján Mančuška died in 2011. However, in his short 39 years of existence, he managed to create a number of remarkable works, many of which have been exhibited in renowned galleries around the world - including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York. In his homeland, however, his work reflecting everyday life, social reality or the meaning of language has never achieved comparable fame. Together with the children of an artist who was not afraid to confront the public with the question of what is the meaning of art, the director embarks on a journey that aims not only to get closer to Mančuška, but also to reveal him in unrecognised shades, thus filling in the gaps that are increasingly appearing in the context of the fading memory of his personality.

WORLD PREMIERE:
Ji.hlava IDFF

CONTACT:
Mannschaft / Marek Dusil / marekdusil@mannschaft.cz